The present invention relates to a windshield wiping device, in particular for a motor vehicle, with at least one drive device, which can be controlled via a control device, the control device controlling a power and torque requirement of the windshield wiping device depending on at least one or a plurality of parameters influencing the power and torque requirements of the drive device.
The physical size of a wiper motor is fixed nowadays taking into consideration a “worst case scenario”. For this purpose, all of the extreme situations to which a windshield wiping device could be subjected, such as windshield drying off, highest wiper arm resting force on the windshield and highest travel speed, for example, are assumed in order to guarantee the power and torque requirements even in the event that the most unfavorable environmental conditions coincide. The consequence of this is extremely high-torque motors, with the dimensions of the mechanical components of the wiper system with respect to strength needing to be matched to the pull-in torque of said motors.
Owing to the resultant large dimensioning of a wiper motor of the windshield wiping device and also the external dimensions, the applicant was confronted with the problem of performing precise adaptation of the motor torque taking into consideration environmental conditions or the signals present in the vehicle, from which the power and torque requirement of the wiper system which is required at any point in time can be derived. Such an adaptation of the motor torque taking into consideration some environmental conditions is proposed in document DE 10 2008 001 816 A1, for example. This document provides a windshield wiping device which has one or more drive devices which can be controlled via a control device. The control device is in this case designed in such a way that it controls the power requirement of the windshield wiping device depending on at least one or a plurality of parameters which have an influence on the power requirement of the respective drive device of the windshield wiping device. In this case, the parameters include at least the travel speed and/or the windshield state.
The prior art, in accordance with document DE 101 44 985, has also disclosed a method for controlling a windshield wiping device, in which method the control device determines the torque of the drive device which can be output depending on the transmission ratio of the windshield wiper rod assembly or the rotary angle thereof in order to control a drive device of the windshield wiping device. The rotary angle range of a motor crank of the windshield wiping device is in this case divided into a plurality of angle ranges, with a dedicated maximum torque being assigned to each of said angle ranges. The control device first calls up the corresponding parameters of various devices of the motor vehicle, such as the rain sensor, the speedometer or the like, for example, in order to determine the required torque and assigns corresponding index to said parameters in order to respond correspondingly to environmental conditions. A predictive adjustment of the required torque of the wiper system is not possible under these conditions, however, which can mean that the windshield wiping device responds relatively slowly to changing functional parameters, in particular of the environmental conditions.